Doctors are being urged by a Teesside MP to ignore any new rules that deny free health care to failed asylum seekers.

It follows disclosures by a Stockton GP of how revised regulations will prevent many victims of torture, rape and brutal beatings from getting NHS care.

Dr Paul Williams - whose primary care team looks after 600 refugees across Teesside - complained in a letter to the medical journal The Lancet that the Government was aiming to prevent patients suffering serious medical and mental problems from receiving free treatment.

These are patients whose requests for asylum have been rejected and who have exhausted all appeals.

At his own Arrival practice he claimed at least 45 patients - some who had been raped, tortured, imprisoned or watched their relatives butchered - would be hit by the tighter controls.

Now, however, Dr Williams and any other clinicians confronted by such a dilemma are being urged to ignore Government's demands.

Stockton North MP Frank Cook said he is well aware of the difficulties asylum seekers face dealing with the Home Office and their often horrendous experiences. The MP said he had taken up many cases of people who had fled to Britain for sanctuary and pleaded with the authorities to show them compassion.

"I am sorry to say the things Dr Williams has highlighted are not new to me but I commend him for bringing them to the attention of the medical profession," he added.

And Mr Cook said he appreciated the predicament faced by health care professionals in this situation.

He said: "If Dr Williams is right in his assessment of the changes in NHS regulations, they will impinge adversely on the health of people - and show just how myopic such ministerial decisions can be.

"So I know what I would do in Dr Williams' position - I would simply ignore the damned regulation.

"For how can a doctor who believes that medical attention is required by a patient turn round and say 'Sorry but you don't qualify'?

"Frankly such a such a situation would go against the integrity of the Hippocratic principle."